Runaway Bay Homes Destroyed By Storm
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RUNAWAY BAY (CBSDFW.COM) - Severe weather spawned tornadoes across North Texas on Tuesday night, and one of the hardest hit areas was Wise County, where some residents made it to safety with only seconds to spare.
People in Runaway Bay immediately knew that it was a tornado coming through from the look of the sky and the sound of the storm.
Runaway Bay is a town of about 1,200 people, located along the shore of Lake Bridgeport.
A lot of the residents in the area are retired or elderly, so first-responders had to help them evacuate.
Brad Snodgrass stepped outside of his home and could hear the rotation swirling. He and his neighbors took cover in a hallway. Wind ripped up the roof of the building and shattered the windows. "We don't know what's left upstairs," said Snodgrass. "Probably nothing, because the roof's completely gone."
"They're pretty stunned right now," said Wise County Judge J.D. Clark. "Talking to some of the folks that lived here that didn't have roofs removed -- they were describing just the change in the pressure, and they knew something significant was happening, and they knew from the pressure it was more than just the wind or a storm."
Firefighters said that two condominium buildings -- about 18 units total -- were damaged. Three sections of roof landed in the community's parking lot, exposing homes to heavy rain and wind. People were inside of those buildings when the storm struck, and many lost everything.
"I just felt it," said condo resident Patricia Escobedo on Wednesday. "I told my son yesterday, if it rains one more time, the water's going to come up and we're going to have a bad, bad storm. I just felt it."
According to Fire Chief Brian Bernardo, half a dozen single-family homes in Runaway Bay were also badly damaged.
There were no reports of injuries, but the families who lived in the condo buildings have all been evacuated. Volunteers with the American Red Cross and a local church are assisting all of the storm's victims on Wednesday.
At the height of the storm, more than 1,000 customers were without power in Wise County. Just before the noon hour that number had been reduced to about 360 and crews were busy working to restore energy to the remaining homes and businesses.
Crews are in Runaway Bay assessing damage. Judge Clark said it is too early to give loss estimates.
A team from the National Weather Service is also on their way to the area to determine if it was in fact a tornado that hit the town.
